The Genealogy Market 2009

I’ve long been interested in the success and long-term outlook of the genealogy market.Â Although altruistic genealogists have done immense amounts of work to transcribe and put records online, one of the strongest forces behind the digitization of genealogical records has been private profit-driven organizations.Â And these organizations, of course, rely on the viability of the market.

FTM Media Kit

Randy Seaver at Genea-Musings recently linked to Family Tree Magazine’s 46 page 2009 Media Kit, which contains extensive information about the genealogy market and the Family Tree Magazine audience.Â The report is filled with statistics about all facets of genealogy and genealogists, and the author(s) include links to all their primary information.

Genetic Genealogy Market

The report includes the conclusion that 651,600 people have taken a genetic genealogy test, based on my research (see “How Big is the Genetic Genealogy Market?“) from November 2007.Â I think that the final number is bigger as of January 2009, probably closer to 750,000-800,000.Â Unfortunately, the actual number has become increasingly more difficult to update because genetic genealogy companies are keeping their numbers private (which is probably understandable as the market has changed so much in the past year).Â Additionally, I’m not certain how much the 23andMe and deCODEme customers increase my results.

For anyone interested in the genealogy market in general, I highly recommend reading the Media Kit.

Post navigation

6 Comments

The genealogy market continues to grow from what I’ve seen, especially with more and more services being offered at places like public libraries (my own which broadcasts it’s vast, and free, genealogy resources offered to patrons.)

You should check out the site http://arcalife.com – it’s a recently launched website, still in Beta, that could really help and lend to the genealogy network.

A colleague of mine, Paul Taylor, built the site with a team of technologists. I am helping him spread the word. Paul is originally from England and he now lives in Canada. He was inspired to build this network from a personal hard experience in his family and it’s grown from there.

arcalife incorporates family search, building a family tree, an easy way to invite your family, uses web 2.0 tools – you can import your photos and videos from other networks like Facebook – it’s truly a full experience where you can store all of your family memories online in one place – it’s an in-depth user experience that is pretty easy and fun.

I’d love to hear what you think – Or better yet, pass it along!
You can let me know feedback, or you can let Paul know at feedback AT arcalife DOT com.
Your time and help is greatly appreciated.

I couldn’t really give you a number, other to say that based on the available DNA projects and other results in general (Ysearch and Ybase), the majority of test-takers are in the U.S. (and I’m being conservative here!).

WOW! “651,600 people have taken a genetic genealogy test” I didn’t relise this market was so big, and that the numbers are increasing. I am going to have to take a deeper look into this one, thank you Blaine for sharing this one. Dennis@ 4 marketing p’s blog

CONNECT WITH ME

About

The Genetic Genealogist examines the intersection of traditional genealogical techniques and modern genetic research. The blog also explores the latest news and developments in the related field of personal genomics. To learn more about me or about genetic genealogy, please explore the site.